Yes. Plants – as living beings – also suffer from stress, understood as all those external situations that negatively affect them, both at a physiological and metabolic level. That is why it is so important to prevent and treat it, because it prevents them from offering their full productivity and can even – together with other circumstances – put their survival at risk.
The most common types of stress are
Imbalances due to defect or excess water are among the most worrying and dangerous situations for plants and their optimal growth. And if there is a mismatch between transpiration and water absorption, plants cannot transport nutrients from the roots to the leaves. And, if there is excess water, they can suffer from a lack of oxygen.
It is our job to find biosolutions that act by improving the physiology of plants, stimulating natural processes to improve the absorption and efficiency of nutrients as well as tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress.
Insects, fungi, bacteria… undoubtedly generate an imbalance, which, added to other abiotic factors, can mean that the plant does not have sufficient defenses to overcome complex situations.
It is the most common case of biotic stress and, against it, the plant needs to be strengthened, with defenses such as those that certain biostimulants can provide.
Also providing a soil rich in beneficial microorganisms, such as mycorrhiza, rhizobacteria or trichoderma.
Excess salt in the soil or irrigation water is another circumstance that can ruin a crop. For this, it is effective to use regulators such as Maxiplant Sal.
It is, without a doubt, one of the issues that most concerns agricultural professionals, because nutrients are, despite the redundancy, the basis of nutrition. A vital function for plants that can be seriously affected if they do not have the necessary nutrients so that both growth and fruit are the best possible.
However, we must keep in mind that the supply of nutrients must also be balanced enough so as not to harm our crops. And the excess of nutrients such as nitrogen or phosphorus is also dangerous for plant development.
How to prevent plant stress?
As they say, prevention is better than cure. Therefore, preventing our plants from suffering biotic or abiotic stress whenever we can is essential.
Applying preventive measures is a good decision. We refer to precautions such as
- Know the soil of our cultivation. It is basic if we want the crop to be successful. Because knowing its characteristics of salinity, structure, nutrients… will allow us to correct what may stress the plant in the future. Just as important as the above is that our plant is well rooted.
- Choose varieties that are more resistant or adapted to the types of biotic or abiotic stress to which our crop may be subjected depending on the area where it is located.
- Manage irrigation efficiently, because this way we will avoid water stress that is very detrimental to the growth and flowering phases of the plant
- Prevent diseases and pests with biosolutions that make our crops resilient and better prepared in the face of any adversity. Achieving optimal nutrition will undoubtedly contribute to making our plants more resistant; stronger.
- Periodically analyze the state of the crops to detect any signs of stress.
- Control the plant environment as much as possible. It is closely related to the above. It must be considered that abiotic stress has to do with environmental factors, which directly affect plant development.
